The invention relates to novel textile lubricating oil compositions, to a process for treating or oiling textile fibers using such compositions and with the treated or oiled textile fibers so prepared.
Lubricating oils have been used in the processing of textile fibers for many years. Usually the lubricating oils are mineral oils but there is an increasing tendency to replace such oils by synthetic oils.
One textile process in which lubricating oils have been applied is the winding of yarns, e.g. continuous filament yarns onto cones. Such cones are then used in knitting processes. In such processes the yarn is wound at high speeds, e.g. from 300 to 1,000 meters/minute, onto the cone. Before being wound the yarn passes over a roller, usually described as a lick roller, which is partly immersed in a bath of the lubricating oil, by which means the yarn becomes lubricated or oiled. The lubricating oils used in this process are sometimes described as coning oils or knitting oils and the process is sometimes described as coning. Further information on coning oils may be obtained from the Book of Papers for the 13th Canadian Textile Seminar, 1972, pages 68 to 73.
Coning oils should preferably have the following characteristics. They should be good lubricants i.e. produce low yarn/yarn and yarn/yarn guide (metal, ceramic) friction; they should be water-soluble or emulsifiable in order that they may be scoured or washed from the final textile articles and they should be non-corrosive, non-toxic, biodegradable and physically and chemically stable. A further desirable characteristic which is now receiving increasing attention is that they should be non-splashing or non-slinging. Splashing or slinging is a phenomenon observed during the high speed winding of yarns which results in oil droplets being "slung" off the yarns immediately after they loose contact with the lubricating rollers. Such oil droplets fall onto the winding machine and the flow which, apart from resulting in a loss of oil, endangers the operators and increases costs as a result of the necessary cleaning operation.